Alternative wrapping paper for free that I can recycle after

liz545

Not quite free, but hardly expensive would be the Financial Times. Nice big sheets, and the pink colour makes it look quite distinctive and actually rather cool when wrapped, especially if you've got some black ribbon for contrast. By the same logic, if you live in a city with a big ethnic population you can often pick up free newspapers printed in different languages - I've got free Chinese language papers from Chinatown which look very cool when used for wrapping.

dianadors

We brought our newspapers home from our French holiday specifically for this purpose. x x

Gemini21

Just received a bag of Christmas presents wrapped in the gardening section of a Sunday broadsheet - pretty flowers, coloured rather than black and white and can be recycled! Also a few sudokus thrown in for good measure!

It didn't bother me at all not to have normal wrapping paper and I will be using this in the future. Someone recommended Le Monde as a fun alternative to UK newspapers, and think broadsheets accommodate larger pressies!

Gemini 21

PasturesNew

Tin foil.
And it's shiny

stilernin

Boxes for small gifts or a few chocs can easily be made from greetings cards.

Choose a card with the focal point somewhere near the centre as this will be the top of the box lid. Cut the front from the back along the fold. Place the front face down and draw margins along all four edges. The width of the margin will determine the depth of the box.

Now score these lines with scissors, this will make folding easier.

At each corner, you have made squares where the margins cross. Cut one side of each of these squares (only the side of the square not any further along the line) and fold along all of the scored lines. By cutting at each corner you have created tabs which are tucked under the other edge as you fold it (hard to explain but simple when you do it).

Now repeat with the back of the card but make the margins a tiny, tiny bit wider. This will make the base of the box which has to be slightly smaller to fit inside the lid. I usually make a liner out of plain paper for the base as the back of the card will have writing on it. Sometimes I will also line the lid if I'm out to impress.

Sorry this is a long explanation, but once you have tried this you will see how easy it is. A great thing for keeping children occupied too. Even the tinies can do it if someone else does the cutting.

DenBo_4

Use women's magazine pages (if it's for a woman obviously), you can use pages which are interesting/relevant to the person.

kb36

I saw a magazine suppmement with do it yourself personalised paper! Not great for wrapping big items as it's only A4 but all recipients were delighted. Type out message 'Happy Christmas _________ from _______' or whatever else depending on how imaginative you are and experiment with colour, font, size etc. Include images, thumbnail photos whatever else. Fill the page and print - works with just balck and white too. Easy to recycle after!! No need for tags either. Add coloured ribbon. I'm doing it again this year! I saw Woolies even sell something similar geared towards kids with popular names! Almost free - just cost of paper and ink!

kay41_2

what a great thread! This is totally up my strasse. I love the idea of newspapers. When I worked in publishing we wrapped up an Indian book we were publishing in beautiful sari fabric and tied it with ribbon and the parcels looked beautiful. And of course you can reuse the fabric again and again. Not sure how sellotape sticks to it. In fact I think I am going to go to a fabric shop right now and buy my wrapping paper. I have in the past made weights for helium baloons for kid's parties out of 2 layers of net in contrasting colours and filled them with sweets and these look great especially with fancy ribbon. Net over the top of another fabric would look good too. Keep the ideas coming!

Kingfisher07

I use newspaper and magazines and sometimes I pick up travel brochures i.e. winter ones with lots of snowy scenes. Over the course of year I cut out photos of my friends and families favourite pop stars or actors and actresses, so I can personalise gift wrapping to make them smile

CountryWife_2

I often use brown paper and personalise it. or i have been known to use fabric. With a big fancy ribbon tied around it it looks fantastic. On the question of sellotape, I have decided that as it is plastic i am not going to use it anymore. you can get sticky brown paper tape so I am going to use that instead.